Tian Research Group

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The Tian group is interested in exploring the materials science interface between biological and physical systems, with a focus around three goals:

Synthetic Cellular Interactions:

P.I.N. Coaxial nanowires for energy conversion

"Our group is interested in both imitating cellular behavior using semiconductor nanomaterials and the augmentation of existing biological systems with semiconductor components. We hope to stably incorporate inorganic materials into the pre-existing cellular frameworks, examining both how single cells interact with these new artificial components, and what uniquely inorganic properties (e.g., electrical and optoelectronic responses, bioorthogonality) we can exploit to derive a more nuanced control over these cellular systems..."

"The ability to monitor the electrophysiology of living cells in real time with good spatiotemporal resolution is crucial for advancing our knowledge of cellular signaling pathways. However, minimally invasive intracellular or intercellular recordings, have been difficult to obtain as traditional techniques use probes that are too large to leave the cell membrane intact or to allow for satisfactory spatiotemporal resolution..."

"Nature routinely uses proteins to design complex three dimensional structures at nanometer scales with great precision. While traditional organic synthesis methods have yielded excellent specificity in chemical products, these are typically limited to molecular length scales and the difficulty of synthesizing these products increases exponentially with size and functional composition..."